DaveT

Rotor not turning while cranking - first thing to check is the driver side timing belt. Replace both belts and all 3 idlers.

The injectors have to be fired individually. Spraying fuel into another cylinder while one is at the correct time for ignition would cause massive unburned hydrocarbon emmisions. Unburned fuel would be pumped out the exhaust.

Do you mean the rotor does not turn when cranking? That indicates broken timing belt/s. It won't turn far by hand,as it is connected to the entire engine's moving parts. You would break something if you try to turn the engine via the distributor shaft.

This is odd. I've been running EA82s since 1988, never seen this. I run NAPA fleet belts. Don't even remember the last time I had to buy them, they are still good, moved from car - car. Tighten the Alternator belt just tight enough so the alternator sheave doesn't slip when you try to turn it by hand. Not through the compression stroke, just in the slack time [angles] between. I found that it's good to re check the belt tensions after a short run if you have dual belts.

The part in the distributor is the timing sensor. It signals the ECU. The ECU fires a transistor on the coil bracket. The coil generates the spark when fired by the transistor.

Check that voltage is getting to the coil and the ECU. With a volt meter , key in run position.

That's the no code things are ok code. All trouble codes are 2 digit. The ECU doesn't know everything, so it is quite common to have failures it doesn't see.

It is entirely possible for a wire to be broken - inside it's insulation, inside the harness. I had one once. It was a pita to find. Got it narrowed down with an ohm meter, moving the harness it would open / close. Had to unwrap and remove the harness. Finally saw an little bump in the wire - sure enough, it was broken right there, inside the insulation. All of the strands, at that spot snapped. The 2 ends bumping against each other.sometimes a connection, sometimes not.

It sounds like you paralleled 2 injectors. ... this would almost certainly burn out the driver for the number they were wired to. Injectors are not trivial loads, and the drivers need to be robust, but they are not likely to be designed with double the headroom required to run one injector.

To read the codes, remove the plastic panel under the driver side dash. Then locate the ECU. It is a grey or painted box bolted to the bottom of the steering column. There is a hole on the edge facing the driver. The red LED blinks the codes. Long blink is 10s place, short are 1s place. Key in run position, it blinks any current problems. It is a very simple system, so it doesn't know everything.

check for power to the coil. Power to the ECU. Test before buying parts.

EA81 is push rod. Cam is gear driven. The condenser thing is just a capacitor to help reduce EMI. Transistors have 3 leads. I'm not sure on EA81s, on EA82s, the ignition transistor is on the coil bracket.

Shouldn't need to mess with the idle screw. If it has one. That doesn't suddenly change like that. Is the choke opening properly when it warms up?

Back in the 90s - before after market idlers existed, and Subaru wanted $90 per idler - I converted the brackets on some old tensioners to use replaceable standard bearings. The idler with the teeth is already a standard bearing. I buy known name brand bearings with contact seals, and replace only the bearings. The tensioners have a swaged post with a standard size bearing [looks like] friction / spin welded onto it. I turned bar stock into posts for standard bearings, and swaged them onto the flat brackets.

Don't buy timing belt parts by price. Buy by quality.

You definitely need to replace the 3 idlers. The bearings don't last much longer than the belts. If there is extra slop, it's on it's way to failure. The belt should be fully on the pulleys. I have had a couple that tracked weird, and flipping them helped.

You will have to swap all of the engine systems wiring, ECU, etc. also. Having the entire doner car is a good idea. Quick? This is a big project. Get copies or scans of the FSMs [especially the schematics] for both cars.

There is no switching between battery and alternator. The alternator output is wired to the battery, only 1 fusible link in between. When the alternator spins fast enough, power goes to the battery and other loads.

If the case looks the same as yours, it should work.... I did discover that there are at least 2 versions - but I don't know what years they were from. Most of the ones I have look the same, 2 have a different metal case, slightly different wiring.

I'd go with the gasket + thin coat of sealant. IF you found some super strong bolts, that could deform the pump or gasket enough to seal dry, they would strip out the threads in the aluminum first.

The only gaskets I really worry about OEM for are the intake manifold gaskets. They are completely different and better than aftermarket cardboard like ones, even Fel-pro.

I used to use a very thin film of RTV on both sides of the gasket, as a sealer. Do not use so much that it oozes out into the cooling system. The bolts should not be in contact with coolant. The holes should be blind.

That is a shielded cable, it cab be replaced by a shielded cable of similar design & size. Not individual wires. Are you getting 12V on the + side of the coil?

The inner joint has the big wire clip holding it together. The outers have to be popped off with the hammer trick. Almost all of mine are OEM. I never bought a new axle. Only used OEM ones. I've been running these models since 1988.

Sounds good. I always re set the tension after the 10 second run. Sometimes it changes, sometimes it doesn't. The tension spec is what it is in part to allow for the effects of time and temperature cycles.